both of Priest and Bishop are to be distinguished that the People may have voice in the Election but can have none in the Ordination I answer that Ordination is but a consequent of Election and when the People vote in the Election of a Pastour they do it to the Ordination But in the Roman Church the People have no voice neither for Election nor Ordination This therefore ought to be a fixed and determined Point among all that wish for the re-establishing of Canonical Elections i. e. that the Council of Trent hath erred in destroying them It only remains to see whether it be an Error simply in Discipline or in Doctrine But this can admit of no difficulty the two Canons of the Council of Trent which ruine Canonical Elections are in the Decree of the Doctrine of the Sacrament of Orders and not in that of Reformation which relates to Discipline And indeed it is clearly a Point of Doctrine that absolutely depends upon that great Principle maintained against the Court of Rome by the Followers of Gerson that is that the Keys were given not to the Person of St. Peter but to the whole Church This says the Author of the Apology for Gerson is the principal Point of the Controversie In Prafations that this most Orthodox Doctor lays down as does St. Austin for a most strong and firm support of the Sentiments of the Vniversity of Paris that Jesus Christ immediately and by himself gave the Keys to the whole Church in General and considered as a Body to the intent that the power of them might be exercised by one And consequently St Peter and the other Prelates considered apart are in possession of the Keys but ministerially and instrumentally as representing the whole Church to which the Keys do appertain principally and in respect of dominion Vide Tract 124. in Joh. and Tract 50. It is certain that St. Austin's opinion is that Christ gave the Keys to the whole Church in general as composed of the People and of the Clergy Now it that be so most certainly the Votes both of the People and of the Clergy are necessary to a lawful Ordination For if the Keys belong to Christians in general they are not to be intrusted but by a general consent This may suffice to shew that the Council of Trent hath erred even by the confession of a great part of the Church of Rome and that it hath erred in points of Doctrine I will only add a word or two about Clandestine Marriages The Council in Session 24. hath declared them to be null This is a point of Doctrine for it is a question that directly touches the matter of Sacraments that is to say Whether the Church can invalidate an action which was till then a true Sacrament For the Council declares that Clandestine Marriages are true Sacraments and at the same time declares them to be null and void It must therefore have a Power of annulling true Sacraments And this is a question of Right and a point of Doctrine if ever there were any Nevertheless upon this point which is a matter of Doctrine the Church of Rome does not conceive her self bound to believe that the Council hath not erred Treatise of the Interdâ—â—â— of Paul V. First Propositiâ—â— The Divines of the Republick of Venice tell us that the Decree of the Invalidity of Clandestine Marriages which belongs to the matter of the Sacrament according to the universal Opinion is not obligatory in places where the Council hath not been promulgated So that it is agreed on all hands that in such places Clandestine Marriages are good To conclude it were unjust to oblige us to have a better Opinion of the Council of Trent than the very Fathers of that Council had But to consider the manner of their words and actions it is a very hard matter to think that they themselves were convinced that that Assembly was infallible There can be nothing more true and more judicious than what was said by Baptista Cigale Bishop of Albenga when the Canons upon the matter of the Sacraments were to be formed That no Man ever quitted his Opinion meerly because condemned and that when Doctors remit matters to the Judgment of the Church it is no more than a civility and should not be abused This Man spake as he thought and I am mistaken if one that talks thus be well satisfied that Councils are infallible If an instance be required of the truth of this expression of the Bishop of Albenga it is found in this very Council in the conduct of the Arch-Bishop of Granada and of the Spaniards upon the question Whether our Lord did Sacrifice himself in the Institution of the Eucharist It is certainly an important question the famous Controversie of the Sacrifice of the Mass depending absolutely upon it The Arch-Bishop and his Partizans after the decision of the matter persevered in their Opinion and even in their opposition until the very moment the Decree was published They were not in all appearance convinced that the Council was infallible but on the contrary they seemed strongly persuaded that it had erred in a point of Doctrine of great importance These are the Principal reasons brought by the Protestants to evince that they cannot with justice be obliged to submit to the Decisions of the Council of Trent They have also other Reasons that persuade them that they are obliged not to submit to it as that they believe that this Council hath established Errors that destroy the true Religion But it is not our intent to report or examine them It is manifest that the understanding of the Reasons we have produced does wholly depend upon knowing the History of this Council And consequently it is highly necessary for all such Protestants to be well instructed in this History as are desirous to be able to defend the refusal they make as Protestants to submit to the Council of Trent The difficulty may be to find a faithful Historian who may be credited in the matter For it is certain that every one is not to be believed in it We are told that the Collections that the Lutherans may have made upon the conduct of the Council can deserve but little Faith that they were Parties that Objects are strangely transformed by Passion and that a relation by the Pen of an Author partial and by assed carries with it the tincture of his Passions But it hath pleased God in his Providence to raise up even in the Church of Rome a Wise a Moderate a Judicious and sincere Man one that in a word was the greatest Man of his Age who hath carefully wrote this History He has all the Perfections required to compleat an Historian Of great Judgment and Abilities strong and clear Sense perfectly instructed in Affairs of a vast penetration and one that wanted no kind of assistance needful to the compleating his Work When this Author began to appear in the World the
all the Divines within their Jurisdiction the Bishop of Constance sent thither James le Fevre his great Vicar who was after Bishop of Vienna This man did what lay in his Power to break up the Assembly and to obstruct all Debates about matters of Religion Zuinglius persisted and in fine the Assembly being dissolved the Senate made an order that the Doctrine of the reformed Religion should be preached with full liberty This so sudden and violent growth of the Distemper made all People wish for a general Council as the onely remedy for restoring peace and tranquillity to the Church The Princes desired it in hopes by that means to provide against the Usurpations of the Priests and Bishops who daily invaded the Estates of Seculars the People longed for it for the reformation of the manners of the Clergy which were horribly corrupted the See of Rome seemed to desire it to support its tottering Authority but Luther and his Adherents protested from the beginning that they would not submit to it unless it were free and the Controversies decided onely by the word of God The Pope dreaded this remedy worse than the Disease he apprehended an Assembly where his Authority might be struck at and those Abuses reformed from which the Court of Rome reaped so much profit besides all this he was at a stand about the choice of the place he would with all his heart have held the Council either at Rome or in any other Town of the Ecclesiastick state where he might have been absolute Master but he foresaw that this design must meet with great opposition however his death which happened about the latter end of the year 1521 put an end to all his perplexities ADRIAN VI. After the death of Leo X. Adaian VI. is chosen in his place On the Ninth of January 1522 Adrian born in Utrecht was chosen in his place this Election was somewhat rare because Adrian at that time was absent from Rome and himself not so much as known there he was then in Biscaye and at Victoria received the News of his promotion but arrived in Rome about the end of August the same year Adrian was reckoned an honest and well meaning man P. Adrian desires to reform the Church that did not approve the disorders year 1522 of the Court of Rome he looked upon the Doctrine of Luther as foolish and stupid not thinking it capable to make any great progress but that those who had embraced that party had onely done it to be revenged of the Clergy for the oppression they suffered from them and for the aversion they had to the manners of the Church-men so that purposing by all means to pacifie these troubles he took a resolution of reforming the Court of Rome As for the Doctrine he was onely of opinion to give some Explanations concerning the Efficacy of Indulgences declaring that that Efficacy depends upon the works of those that receive the Indulgences so that they who neglect or perform amiss the works imposed upon them receive no benefit from the Indulgences but in proportion to their works Cardinal Cajetan a man consummated in School Divinity was at the bottom of the same Judgment with Adrian but he told him however that that Doctrine was not to be divulged because it would extinguish the Zeal that People had for Indulgences and lessen the Authority of the Pope for said he if once the People be perswaded that the Efficacy of Indulgences depends upon their own good works they will look upon themselves as the cause of the benefit they reap from them and set light by the Pope and the present that he makes them and farther they will easily be induced to believe that their good works alone are sufficient to procure them a full remission if they be allowed to think that the Efficacy of Indulgences depends upon their good works These reasons did preponderate with Adrian insomuch that he joyned in opinion with the Cardinal who thought fit that the rigour of the ancient penitential Canons should be revived that thereby the Necessity of Indulgences might appear because when Sinners should see themselves obnoxious to twenty or thirty years Penance according to the Canons they would then easily acknowledge the absolute Necessity of Indulgences to ease them from such severe pains but the Congregation appointed by the Pope to enquire into that affair could not digest that resolution and Laurence Pucci Cardinal of Santiquatro powerfully withstood it But he could not succeed in the design of that Reformation Adrian in the mean while did not wholly lay aside the design of reformation he sent for John Peter Caraffa Archbishop of Chieti and Marcel Cazel Bishop of Cajeta that he might have the assistance of their Councils because both were held in great reputation for probity and knowledge in the Discipline of the Church He was minded to have abolished the use of Dispensations and to have cut off every thing that looked like Simony but when he came to cast about for the means of effecting this he found himself in great Perplexity At length Francis Soderin Cardinal of Volterre put a stop to all these specious designs of reformation He told the Pope that that was the way to puff up the Lutheran party that it would be a great blow to the Authority of the Church by a reformation to confess her possibility of erring that Hereticks would from thence draw great advantages and that the holy See would by that means lose all its credit in the minds of the People he concluded that Croisades were the onely expedient to root out growing Heresies which he confirmed by the Instance of that great success obtained by Innocent III. in the ruine of the Albigenses by the way of force Adrian yeilded to his reasons seeing he could doe no more but sigh in secret for the Disorders which he could not remedy publickly In the mean while he sent Francis Cherigat Bishop of Fabriano to the Diet at Nuremberg he wrote to the Princes Adrian sends a Letter into Germany confessing that the Church and Court of Rome are corrupted and particularly to the Duke of Saxony exhorting them to extirpate the Lutherans by Fire and Sword He confessed to them that there were great abused in the Court of Rome and that the original of all the Mischief came from thence promising to remedy it and in the first Place to reform the holy See in imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ who in reforming of Jerusalem began at the Temple out of which he drove the Merchants and Money-changers but he excused himself that that was not the business of one day at the same time he complained of the disorders of the Regular and Secular Priests of Germany of which the one forsook their Monasteries to live again in the World and the others married to the great Scandal of the Church The Diet made answer in a kind of ambiguous manner but which did insinuate to the
Pope At Valladolid where he was when the News was brought him he caused the publick rejoycings that then were making there for the Birth of his Son to cease but made no haste for all that to set the Pope at liberty onely sent him great Complements of Condoleance for his Misfortunes and ample Excuses for what had been acted against him and in the mean time let him lie seven Months in Prison Nor would he at all have been dissatisfied it the Pope had been brought into Spain that he might have triumphed over him as he had done before over Francis I. But the Spanish Prelates abhorring that design he durst not push it farther onely he obliged the Pope to accept of ignominious Conditions of Peace and for Caution to give him up the Towns of Ostia Civita Vecchia Civita Castellana and the Citadel of Forli with his tow Nephews Hippolito and Alexander for Hostages This being concluded he had liberty to goe out on the 9th of December but he thought it not fit to expect the prefixed day nor to come out as a released Prisoner he therefore retired by Night on the Eighth under the disguise of a Merchant and went to Monte-Fiascone During the troubles of Italy the affairs of Religion went ill for the interest of the Court of Rome for the City of Berne in Suisserland following the example of Zurich Zuinglius's Reformation gains ground in Suisserland Berne and Basil embrace it received the Doctrine Zuinglius At Basil they broke down the Images and the same year the Cities of Strasbourg Constance and Geneva fell off from their obedience to the Church of Rome These new Preachers had the boldness to preach the Doctrine of Reformation even in Italy and in places subject to the Pope's Dominion and amongst others in the Town of Faenza which belongs to the Ecclesiastick State 1528. The Imperialists quit Rome the Pope makes Peace with the Emperour The year following the countenance of affairs was much changed in Italy The French made great progresses in the Kingdom of Naples and forced the Imperialists to abandon the City of Rome This little interval wrought such an alteration that the Pope was solicited to excommunicate the Emperour and to depose him from the Kingdom of Naples but he found his Party as yet too weak to venture on giving so great a blow He had besides other prospects than those of his Allies a great mind to recover Florence and knew of none but the Emperour that could serve him that Design for as to the Venetians and French he was sufficiently perswaded that if they had the better on 't they would leave the Florentines to their liberty He therefore resolved to be reconciled to the Emperour upon any terms whatsoever Throughout this whole year his discourse was so submissive and humble that for some time it was really thought his afflictions had humbled him in good earnest He often said year 1528 that he would goe in person into Germany and there lead so holy a Life that all might take example from him be converted and return into the bosom of the Church year 1529 By this Conduct Clement succeeded in his Intentions he moved the Emperour to compassion who restored to him Civita Vecchia Ostia and the other cautionary Towns and by the mouth of Francis Guignonez Cardinal of Santacroce made him great offers on his part Amongst other things Charles obliged himself to re-establish Alexander de Medicis the Pope's Nephew in the Principality of Florence and to give him Margaret his natural Daughter in Marriage He promised him also assistance for recovering of the Towns of Cervia Modena Ravenna and Reggio which the Venetians and the Duke of Ferrara had taken from him Nor were the Lutherans forgot in this Treaty for the Emperour promised to employ his Arms against them if no fair means could prevail On his own part he demanded of the Pope the Convocation of a Council but nothing was then fixt upon as to that And thus by this Treaty which was held at Barcelona the See of Rome did as it were in a moment recover its ancient Splendour and Greatness to the amazement of all Europe A Diet at Spire where it is attempted to divide the Lutherans and Zuinglians The same year in the Month of March there was a Diet held at Spire where the Roman Catholicks powerfully bestirred themselves to divide their Adversaries and for that end industriously improved the difference of opinions that was betwixt Luther and Zuinglius concerning the Doctrine of the Eucharist But the prudence of the Landgrave of Hesse hindered year 1529 the effects of those intrigues many and great Debates past in that Diet about Matters of Religion and at length a decree was made ordering the Edict of Wormes to be put in Execution in all places where it had been begun to be executed but as for other places where some innovation had been made matters should continue at least as they were without farther proceeding untill the ensuing Council and that in the mean time no person should be permitted to turn Lutheran after all the Decree ordained that the Celebration of Mass should be permitted every where and that no new opinions should be started The Electour of Saxony with five other Princes and fourteen of the chief Towns of Germany protested against this Decree declaring that they could not recede from the resolutions that had been taken in former Diets whereby every Prince was allowed to live in his own Religion and to have power within his own Territories either to establish the reformation or prohibit the Exercise of the Roman Religion as he should think fit And thereupon they appealed to the Emperour and a free Council from this Protestation the Followers of Luther and Zuinglius got the Name of Protestants The Landgrave of Hess attempts an agreement betwixt Luther and Zuinglius but without success The Landgrave of Hesse having in the last Diet well observed what might be the consequences of the difference in opinion betwixt Luther and Zuinglius formed a design of bringing them to an Agreement and to compass this design he assembled the heads of both parties to a Conference at Marpurg which lasted all the Month of October But these Conferences had no effect flesh and bloud came in for a share and both parties were too much addicted to their Sentiments to yield in any thing Some time after Luther wrote to one of his Friends that he would not expose the Princes of his party to a greater hatred of the Romanists by Adopting the expressions of the Zuinglians which were detested by all men And this probably was the consideration that hindered him from condescending to the agreement proposed The first interview of the Pope and the Emperour at Bologna the Emperour is Crowned there by the Pope In the Treaty concluded betwixt the Emperour and the Pope it was agreed that the Emperour should receive the Imperial Crown from the Pope
his Legate at Ausbourg to make but a slight opposition to it and then to depart that he might not be present at the publication of the Interim giving him instructions in the mean time to sow Seeds of Jealousie betwixt the German Prelates and the Emperour and to alarm the Protestants by insinuating to them that it was onely an invention to oppress their Liberty and Conscience and that it was no snare laid for the Catholicks of whose faith the Emperour could not make himself Judge The fifteenth of May that Book was read in presence of the Assembly and no body durst contradict it though all were displeased None but the Electour of Mentz spoke and thanked the Emperour of his own head without any Commission from the rest and the Emperour seemed to accept of those thanks as a general approbation Farthermore on the fourteenth of June following Charles caused a Decree of Reformation to be published containing two and twenty Chapters and about one hundred and thirty Ordinances for the Reformation of the Clergy against the Plurality of Benefices concerning the Duty of Preachers the Ceremonies of the Sacraments and their Administration concerning Discipline the Clergy Schools Universities Councils Excommunication c. and very good Regulations were made in all these particulars but that Piece was as ill taken at Rome as the Interim not onely because these Regulations did in no wise jump with the interest of that Court but also because it is a fundamental Law at Rome that no Secular has any right of giving Laws to Church-men Nevertheless that Piece of Tyranny was born with because it could not be helped At the same time an Act past in the Diet commanding Provincial and Diocesan Synods to be held yearly for settling the Decree of Reformation The Diet ended the last day of June and the Edict was published wherein the Emperour engaged himself to procure the Council to be continued at Trent Much opposition made to the Establishment of the Interim After that Charles set about the Execution of the Interim but was almost every where opposed by the Protestants Frederick Duke of Saxony though a Prisoner refused to submit to it and a little Town in Germany made upon that occasion a Remonstrance which deserves to be transmitted to Posterity If our Lives and Fortunes belong to you said they suffer our Conscience at least to be God's If you were perswaded of the truth of this form of faith it would be a powerfull Motive to make us embrace it But seeing you your self look upon it as false why would you have us receive it as true For the truth is the Emperour had no design to perswade the World that he himself had renounced the Doctrines of the Church of Rome which he had either impaired or qualified in his Interim On the contrary in the Preface he prohibited all those who had till then continued in the Roman Communion to make any alteration in Doctrine or Ceremonies Though this opposition was pretty general yet some consented to admit of that Interim or at least pretended to do so But the City of Magdebourg did formally reject it and in such a slighting way too as obliged the Emperour to declare them Rebels and make War against them They maintained that War a long time and obstinately refused to surrender The Emperour had likewise expresly commanded that no man should write against the Interim and nevertheless a whole swarm of writings came forth against that Book both from Protestants and Roman Catholicks Francisco Romeo General of the Jacobins by command of the Pope assembled the most Learned of his Order and caused a smart Refutation of it to be made It had the ill luck also to stir up division amongst the Protestants of Germany that is to say betwixt those who had admitted of it and those who would not and divided them into two Sects for they who in compliance with the Emperour had allowed the re-establishment of the ancient Ceremonies in that justified their own Proceedings maintaining Ceremonies to be things indifferent But the rest objected that weakness to them as a great Crime and separated themselves from them calling them the Indifferent or Adiaphorists The Execution of the Edict of Reformation which the Emperour had made caused as great troubles for the German Prelates who stuck fastest to the Pope desired that at least he might have some hand in the business and therefore the Emperour at their Solicitation acquainted the Pope with all that he had done and prayed him to send Legates to joyn with him in his design of Reforming the Church of Germany The Pope had it least in his thoughts to become the Executor of the Orders of an Emperour whom he looked upon as an Usurper of his Rights Nevertheless that he might not absolutely break with the Germans who he feared might make a general revolt and lest in imitation of Henry the Eighth King of England Charles might declare himself Head of the Church he resolved to send two Legates not for executing the Edict of Reformation but to give Absolution to the. Lutherans who should return into the Bosome of the Church with power to grant all manner of Dispensations even as far as to allow the Communion in both kinds to those who would confess that the Church doth not err in prohibiting it He gave them likewise Authority to abrogate some of the Ceremonies of the Church and to remit somewhat of the ancient Discipline He empowred them not onely to absolve Seculars Princes and Towns but also Apostate Monks who had left their Monasteries allowing them to live abroad in the World provided that under the habit of Secular Priests they should wear that of Regulars This last seemed a pretty odd kind of an Order and a Mystery that no body could tell what to make of He caused Copies of this Bull to be dispersed that so he might thwart the Edict of Charles and retreive the possession of the power of Reforming Manners and Doctrine which the Emperour would have invaded In execution of the Emperour's Edict some Provincial Synods were held in Germany The Archbishop of Cologne called one wherein some good Acts were made concerning Discipline which were approved by Charles the Fifth but no mention at all of matters of Faith The Electour of Mentz observed not the same measures for in his Synod he made eight and forty Decrees about matters of Faith and fifty six concerning the Reformation of Discipline In things that had been decided he followed the Council of Trent and in the rest the most received opinions of the School-men except in the point of Images where he declared that Images are onely appointed for bare Commemoration and not for objects of Devotion and in that of Saints where he asserts that the honour due to Saints is an honour of Society and Dilection and not a Religious Worship The Nuncio's who were named in the year 1548. set not forward on their Journey to Germany
of Discipline But we shall find this Answer to be a great Illusion First of all it is very hard to comprehend why the Church should be indued with an Infallible Spirit only in points of Doctrine and not in matters that should establish Order and Government For certainly it is of the Essence of the Church to be governed according to the intention of God and of Christ as certainly as it is Essential to it to be guided in all Truth Suppose it impossible to retain all the speculative Truths and therefore that Anarchy Confusion and Disorder become prevalent what sort of Church should we have But the better to dissipate this Illusion it is to be observed that there is no Point of Discipline but hath a strict Union with some Point of Right and that there are some Points of Discipline that are Points of Doctrine likewise and of the first Class too For example the Roman Hierarchy the disposition of that great and mighty Clergy distinguished into Priests Bishops Arch bishops Patriarchs Primates over whom is placed their great Head whom they intitle Christs Vicar and Lieutenant upon Earth Is not that a Point of Discipline All that respects the Guidance and Government of the Church the Persons their Characters their Charges their Dignities their Authority and Jurisdiction are they not of the Discipline of the Church If with this Pretext it should be objected to the Romanists Gentlemen your Hierarchy in the whole and in all its parts is a meer matter of Discipline the Church might possibly err concerning it and it is therefore fit to review and re-examine it What would they reply to it Methinks they would answer that it is a Point of Discipline which is also a Point of Doctrine and of Right At least the Council of Trent hath so defined it and hath treated of the Hierarchy under the head of matters of Doctrine There are indeed three kinds of Doctrine the first are purely Speculative as the Mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation and the Redemption the second are Practical respecting our Manners and of this kind are the Moral Precepts that are the Rules for governing our Life and directing our Conscience and the third are those Practical Doctrines that respect the Guidance and Government of the Church that is to say that there must be a Ministry in the Church that Believers ought to obey their Guides that the Residence of Bishops is by Divine Right that the Pastors are instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ that there must be a Lawful Call to the Ministry that so there may be a Right of governing the Church that such Government may not be Tyrannical that the Church may not withdraw Believers from their Lawful Lords in Temporal matters It is most clear that all these are Points of Doctrine respecting Discipline So that a Council that errs in Points of Discipline that have an inseparable Connexion with those Doctrinals does by necessary consequence err in Doctrine But to render this General Consideration the more sensible I will particularly apply it to some Principal Articles of Discipline wherein it is confessed that the Council of Trent hath exceeded the limits of its Power and which I will make out to be Articles of Doctrine also so that such as will confess that Council to have erred in Discipline shall be constrained to acknowledge that it hath erred in Doctrine and in matters of Faith That the Popes Superiority over Councils is a Point of Doctrine and was decided in the Council of Trent Let us begin with the Article of the Superiority of the Council over the Pope or of the Pope over the Council Few are ignorant with what heat this Question has constantly been argued ever since the Councils of Constance and Basil both of which pronounced the Pope inferiour to a General Council and the Gallican Church makes it an Article of her Faith to maintain the decisions of those Councils But I would fain be informed whether it be an Article of Faith or of Discipline yet I think there is no doubt but it will be avowed for a Point of Doctrine it having always been considered as such It is also certainly a Point of Discipline for all that respects the Form of the Churches Government may fitly be brought under the head of Discipline This important matter the Council of Trent hath decided in favour of the Pope and yet the Gallican Church still perseveres in the contrary belief She believes therefore that the Council erred in a Point of Doctrine I know it will be said That the Council of Trent hath not decided that the Pope is Superiour to Councils Men may talk as they please but things for all that will continue as they are It is true that among the Decrees and Canons of that Council there is none that says in express terms The Pope is Superiour to Councils and can be judged by none but the effect of such Decision is apparent in all the Acts and through the whole Conduct of this Council It is necessary for establishing the Sovereignty of a Temporal Prince that the States of his Country make a formal Declaration and thereby acknowledge him their Master and their Sovereign Is it not enough that they obey him that they suspend their resolutions are convened and dissolved at his pleasure that in their Acts they stile him their Lord and their King and that they own that all they do is nothing unless confirmed by his Authority I believe there are none so unreasonable as to deny this to be of equal Value with any express Declaration of Sovereignty We shall therefore make it unquestionably clear that the carriage of the Council of Trent towards the Pope hath been in all points such In order to this it is to be remembred that the fifth Council of Lateran considered by the Court of Rome as a General Council assembled by Julius II. begun in the year 1512 under Leo X. had repealed annulled and abrogated the Pragmatick Sanction which was an Abstract of the Decisions of the Councils of Basil and Constance made at Bourges in the year 1438. by Order of Charles VII in a solemn Assembly of all the Clergy of France and of the Parliaments The grand design of it was to abase the Pope and to retrench the Tyrannical part of his Power the very Basis of all the Regulations and Proceedings of this Assembly being founded upon the Principle of the Subjection of Popes to Councils But then comes Julius II. in his Council of Lateran and re-establishes the Popes Superiority over the Council declaring null and void all that had been done in prejudice of it by the Councils of Constance and Basil Twenty eight years after was the first Convocation of the Council of Trent Between these there had been no General Council nor any thing in prejudice of that Superiority that was so re-established by the Council of Lateran On the contrary there was something actually done of
Points upon which they were to deliberate telling them you shall speak only as I direct you you shall debate the Propositions that I shall make you and you shall not dare to exceed the bounds I set you Yet such was one of the Decrees of the Council signed by all the Fathers and made at the opening of the third and most solemn Convocation of the Council Was there any thing done to remedy the consequences of this Clause Truly just nothing in effect There was a little Decree made and little it signified to pacifie dissatisfied minds it was that the Legats a little before the end of the Council should declare that it was not intended by this Clause to prejudice the liberty of the Council nor at all to alter the manner of proceeding that former Councils had observed but it is not said that there was no intent to prejudice the opinion that subjects the Council to the Pope Those that shall read this History will find by what passed from the twenty second to the twenty third Session what Endeavours were used by the Court of Rome to slide in a Decree among the Acts of the Council to establish the Popes Supremacy There was a Minute of such a Decree sent from Rome wherein it was said that the Pope hath power to govern the Universal Church Ecclesiam universalem The Emperour and the French joyned to oppose it as easily penetrating the Design of exalating the Pope over the whole Church of making him absolute Master of it and by consequence placing him above Councils Well then and what was the issue of the Dispute The Court of Rome feigned to yield the Point and the Decree did not pass but yet the thing was after cunningly done in another Decree where the very words are used but in a way that seems as if it was without design It is in the first Chapter of General Reformation in the last Session where it is said that the Pope has the Administration of the Vniversal Church These words do plainly signifie that the Pope is sole Bishop that the others are but his Delegates and by consequence that he is the Monarch and Superiour of the Church whether it be considered together as a Body or disjunctly in its Parts If the words might admit of another construction yet the very Council it self did thus interpret them and therefore for a time did reject them tho afterwards it received them by inadvertence And this is another express Decision that exalts the Pope above the whole Church It would certainly be tiresom to the Reader should I produce all the Proofs that might be brought to shew that the Council of Trent hath acknowledged the Pope for Superiour For I should then be obliged to speak of the Bulls of Convocation that were registred and received by the Council in which the sole power of convening Councils and presiding in them is ascribed to the Pope contrary to the Decisions of the Councils of Constance and Basil I should also speak of the Bulls of Suspension sent by the Popes to their Legats by which as Masters and Superiours they impowered them to suspend and to dissolve the Council I should in fine be obliged to speak of all that was done in those two important Controversies that made so much noise in the Council that is whether the Episcopal Order were of Christs Institution and whether the Residence of Ecclesiasticks be Jure Divino But I shall leave the Readers to make due Reflections upon the Legats presiding in the Council and their management of affairs I shall only offer two Proofs but the most convincing that can be The first shall be the last Chapter of Reformation in the last Session In this Chapter the Council declares That all that hath been ordained concerning the Reformation of Manners and Ecclesiastical Discipline is so ordained as that the Council will thereby manifest to all the world that the Authority of the holy Apostolick See remains whole and untouched That is to say that the Pope is not bound by the Canons nor tied from dispensing with them when he thinks fit This is not our Gloss but the Court of Rome's it is the plain intent of the Council that framed the Decree it is agreeable to constant and continual Practice for the Pope de facto does daily dispense with the Canons of this Council It could not more plainly be pronounced that the Pope is Master and Sovereign of the Council nor could any thing be more directly contrary to the Decisions of the Council of Constance This latter Council speaks thus in the fourth and fifth Session The holy Synod of Constance duly assembled being a General Council and representing the Catholick Church is empowered immeditely from Jesus Christ which every person of whatsoever condition or dignity tho even of the Papal dignity is bound to obey in all things that relate to Faith the extirpation of Heresie and the Reformation of the Church as well in the Head as in the Members That is to say the Council of Constance declares that the Pope is bound to obey the Canons of the Council And the Council of Trent declares that the Authority of the Council reaches not to the Pope but leaves his Power untouched One of the two Councils has therefore certainly erred for their Decisions are in direct contrariety to each other The last Proof I shall urge is the Confirmation of its Decrees which the Council of Trent desired of the Pope If that does not suppose that without such Confirmation the Decrees of the Council were of no force as the Court of Rome pretends it signifies just nothing If the Validity of the Decisions of a General Council depends upon the Popes Confirmation it it into Propositions and then it runs thus The Church hath Power over the Temporalties of Kings and private Persons can take away their Possessions and give them to others can proceed to Sentence and Execution by Corporal punishment by Imprisonment and Sequestration can take cognisance of the validity of Wills and Testaments can oblige Laymen to give an account of their management of Donations for pious Uses hath Power to exercise all manner of Judicature and in Matrimonial Causes exclusive to all other Tribunals In a word can hear and determine all matters Civil and Criminal Is there not reason then to allow this for Doctrine Is not Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction matter of Doctrine Hath not the Council of Trent treated of it in the Chapter of Order as of a point of Doctrine If the Jurisdiction of the Church be a matter of Doctrine is it not absurd to say that the Decrees to which such Jurisdiction does extend are meerly points of Discipline Are not the Whole and its Parts of one nature Iâ— the Jurisdiction of the Church considered together and in gross belongs to Doctrine why not the parts the branches the extent of it likewise Thus have we another point of Doctrine in which the Gallican Church and
to Henry Arthur being dead the Father with a dispensation from Pope Julius II. gave her to his second Son by whom she had onely one Daughter alive called Mary Henry who passionately desired to have Male issue sought to Divorce her under colour of invalidity in the dispensation This afforded matter for a long and tedious process which depended from the year 1528. to 1534. In the beginning of this year 1534 affair the Pope being in War with the Emperour gave orders to Cardinal Campeggio his Legate in England so to manage the Trial that the procedures might run in favour of Henry thereby vex Charles V. but a reconciliation being pieced up betwixt the Pope and the Emperour the case of the Divorce betwixt Henry and Catharine changed countenance because the Pope intended to oblige Charles by favouring his Aunt This change provoked Henry so that he prohibited all his Subjects to pay any Peter-pence to the Receivers and the Pope by and Evocation brought the Trial to Rome where the business went very slowly on Henry who could no longer indure these delays published his Divorce with Catharine of Spain and in the year 1535. Married Anne Bullen Sometime after News whether true or false was brought to Rome that there had been a Comedy Acted before the King of England wherein the whole Court of Rome the Pope and Cardinals had been shamefully expos'd and turned into ridicule This was News indeed that over-heated the spleen of all those who thought themselves concerned and set them on revenge which made them out-run the constable in pronouncing Sentence the 24. of March whereby the Marriage of Henry and Catharine was declared good and valid and upon that account Henry ordained to adhere to her and in case of refusal that he should ipso facto be Excommunicated Henry on the other hand took the alarm as hot as they when he had seen this Sentence Well said he let the Pope be Bishop of Rome and for my part I 'll be Master within my own Kingdom And so he was as good as his word for he issued out a Proclamation wherein he declared himself head of the Church of England prohibited the paying of Peter-pence to the Pope's Receivers and got this Declaration confirmed by Act of Parliament though in all other things he retained the Roman Religion and afterwards published severe Proclamations against the Doctrine of Luther In Germany the State of affairs was nothing better they began to take up Arms for King Ferdinand had seised the Dutchy of Wittenberg from Prince Ulrich and the Landgrave of Hesse had by Force of Arms retaken and restored it to its lawfull Master The Emperour who feared that things might not stop here was in good earnest angry with the Pope for starting so many difficulties to obstruct the holding of a Council and thereupon wrote expostulatory Letters to Rome But within a few days after the receipt of these Letters Clement fell sick of a Distemper that carried him out of the world about the end of September 1534. PAUL III. Pope Clement dies Paul III. succeeds him Cardinal Farnese succeeded to him and was chosen the same day the Conclave was shut up At first he took the name of Honorius V. but at his Inauguration he quitted that and took the name of Paul III. He wanted not Vertue though the character he went under was of a reserved and slye man Besides all his other qualities he was consummated in the knowledge of affairs having been Cardinal under six Popes and all along employed in important Negotiations he was also chief of the Cardinals as being Dean of the Sacred College which advantages did not a little facilitate his year 1537 The Pope in the beginning of his Pontificate gave some signs of his intentions to reform the Church but little came on 't Also in the year 1536. Fruitless attempts of Paul III. for the reformation of the Court of Rome he made a Bull for a Reformation and named Cardinals to act in it This also was without effect In fine well perceiving that he would be accused of having made all these steps without any design of touching the abuses of the Court of Rome for his own Justification he resolved to renew his design of reformation He named four Cardinals and five Prelates to whom he gave commission to make an exact collection of all the abuses that deserved amendment They observed four and twenty abuses in the administration of Ecclesiastick affairs and four in the Government of Rome of which they gave the Pope a particular account These articles were examined in a Consistory but Nicolas Schomberg a Jacobin Cardinal of Santo Sixto withstood that reformation and having made use of the same reasons which Francis Soderini Cardinal of Volterre had used in the time of Adrian he had the same success that is to say he took the Pope off from all these designs of Reformation year 1538 The Pope calls a Council in the Town of Vicenza where the Legates goe but no body appears So that Paul III. having now no other affair to mind but that of a Council published a new Bull for convocating it in the City of Vicenza under the Dominion of the Venetians and that the Prelates might have time to repair to the place he appointed the first of May 1538 for the opening of the Assembly Henry King of England who slipt to occasion of exercising his pen against Rome wrote against that Bull as well as against the former and made the same declarations as he had done before protesting year 1538 that he no more owned the Assembly at Vicenza for a true Council than he had done that which was to have been held at Mantua the Legates in the mean time went to Vicenza to make the overture of the Council on the day prefixt And the Pope An interview of the Pope Emperour and K. of France being at Nice where the Emperour and the King of France were come to see him and to confer about means of restoring peace to their subjects endeavoured to perswade them to send their Prelates to Vicenza but both desired time to consult their Bishops about the matter So that the Legates who were to preside in the Council to wit Campeggio Simmonetto and Alexander stayed three Months at Vicenza expecting the Prelates who never came of this they gave the Pope an account who was fain to recall them by a Bull dated July 28. 1538. and to defer the opening of the Council till Easter following This was the year wherein Paul III. The Pope thunders a Bull of Excommunication against Henry VIII King of England losing all patience towards Henry King of England let fly a Bull of Excommunication against him The Pope had entertained hopes of reclaiming him by patience and besides that he was loath to let that thunder go out of his hands which men were grown now almost proof against But Henry proceeded so incorrigibly that there was now no
presence of all the rest read the Decrees and the others gave no other Vote but placet or non placet A Debate concerning the Title of the Council and the words representing the universal Church Whilst the second Session was expected wherein there was nothing as yet to be done the Legates proposed a Decree for regulating the manner of living Christianly at Trent during the sitting of the Council this Decree was read with the Title of the Council the form of which had been sent by the Pope in these words The most holy and sacred Oecumenick and universal Council of Trent the Apostolick Legates presiding therein The French who had their prospects to favour the opinions that prevail in France touching the Superiority of a Council over the Pope desired these words to be added Representing the universal Church most of the Bishops were of the same opinion but the Legates opposed it because the Councils of Constance and Basil had used that clause with design to establish the Superiority of the Church and General Councils over the Pope John de Salazar Bishop of Lanciano maintained the opinion of the Legates vigorously insisting that that clause should not be added because the ancient Councils had never used it But he was also of opinion that the clause The Apostolick Legates presiding therein ought to be left out because it was not of ancient use He farther added that great and pompous Titles of Councils were not to be affected since every thing there ought to favour of Moderation and Humility The Legates took the first part of the Advice of the Bishop of Lanciano and past by the second so that notwithstanding all opposition the Title stood as it had been sent from Rome The rest of the Decree past without any difficulty for it could not be called in question seeing it contained nothing but exhortations to all to lead a Christian honest and a sober Life It enjoyned all the Members of the Council that were Priests to say Mass at least once every Sunday and in the conclusion of the Decree they Council declared that if any one in the Assemblies should speak out of his turn or sit out of his place he should not thereby sustain any prejudice nor yet forfeit nor acquire any right session 2 The seventh of January the second Session was held 1546. in the which were present twenty eight Bishops four Archbishops three Abbots of the Congregation of Mount Cassin four Generals of Orders who with the three Legates and the Cardinal Bishop and Lord of Trent made up an Assembly of three and forty Persons This company met in the house of the first Legate and from thence went in great Pomp through a lane of Musqueteers to the Cathedral So soon as the Prelates entred the Church the Souldiers drew up round the place and gave a Volley then was Mass said and a Sermon preached after which the Decree was read and all answered with a Placeâ— except the French who persisted in demanding the words universam ecclesiam representans to be added to the Title This being done the next Session was appointed to be on the fourth of February year 1546 The Legates complaine that there appeared division in the very Session and pretend to enter upon business There was no Congregation held untill the thirteenth of January wherein the Legates complained that opposition had been made to the Title of the Council even in the Session alledging that it was neither prudence nor wisedom publickly to break out into diversity of Sentiments because nothing could prevail more to bring the Lutherans to submit to the Council than the harmony union that should appear in their Proceedings Afterwards they gave it out that they intended to enter into matters of importance as the Prelates desired They proposed to them the three Heads contained in the Pope's Bull for which the Council was called to wit the extirpation of Heresies the reformation of Discipline and the restauration of Peace they asked the Bishops counsels concerning the Order wherein these three Points ought to be handled beseeching them to pray for the assistance of God in it and to come prepared for treating thereof in the next Congregation This was so much time gained during which the Legates expeded Letters from Rome They had wrote to Rome to know if the Pope would be satisfied that they should remit any thing as to the words in the Title representing the Universal Church but in particular they acquainted him that they were informed by Cardinal Pacieco that the Emperour had enjoyned the Spanish Bishops to repair to the Council and that therefore it was necessary that he should send ten or twelve trusty Italian Prelates on whom he might rely to be opposed to the Spaniards that were to come because the Italians who were then at Trent were men of no great interest nor authority The second Congregation was held the eighteenth of January where opinions were given about the method of handling the three above mentioned Heads The Germans alledged that there could be no hopes of success in the extirpation of Heresies before the Church was reformed and that therefore before all things they should set about a Reformation The others though in very small number were for taking a quite opposite Course and that they should begin with matters of Faith There was a third party of opinion that they should treat of Doctrine and Reformation at one and the same time which opinion prevailed in the Sequel but it was not the Legates intention that any thing should be concluded in that Congregation they therefore broke it up and referred the matter to another time This indeed was resolved upon that the Congregations should be regularly held twice a week to wit Munday and Friday to avoid farther trouble in calling them The Legates wrote again to Rome urging that they might at length have instructions sent them as had been promised and money for the poor Bishops because they could no longer amuse the Prelates with Preliminaries that the time of the third Session drew nigh and no body could tell what might be decided in it The Pope was in no haste the Council was least in his thoughts for he was wholly bent upon a War which Cardinal Farnese had the year before concluded with the Emperour against the Lutherans A great party of the Council are for beginning with Reformation but the Legates oppose it During these delays that party of the Prelates which was for beginning the actions of the Council by the reformation of Discipline grew strong and that was quite contrary to the intentions of the Court of Rome which aimed onely at the Lutherans and dreaded a Reformation The Legates therefore who had for a long time dextrously evaded that proposition were at length forced to oppose it openly in a Congregation of the twenty second of January and made use of this reason that stood them in great stead That the Emperour had
Sentiment of the Lutherans that any Character was imprinted in the Sacraments why they might not be reiterated there was some dispute Dominico à Soto would have had it defined that that Character is founded on Scripture others were of a contrary opinion because neither Gratian nor the Master of the Sentences say any thing as to that and that Scotus confesses that it can neither be maintained by Scripture nor the Fathers but onely by the Authority of the Church And it is to be observed that that is the manner of this Authour when he would smoothly condemn an opinion It was decided against the tenth Article of the Doctrine attributed to the Lutherans that it is false That a wicked Minister cannot administer a true Sacrament Against the Eleventh that it is false that all Christians of what Sex or Condition soever may preach the word and administer all the Sacraments Against the Twelfth that it belongs not to all Pastours to encrease or diminish the Ceremonies of the Sacraments A remarkable opinion of Catarino about the intention that is necessary in him that administers the Sacrament On occasion of the thirteenth Article which regards the intention that is thought necessary for the Validity of a Sacrament there arose great Debates The Council of Florence had determined it to be necessary and that was a Knot not to be untied but Ambrosio Catarino Bishop of Minori started a very considerable opinion he strongly urged that the intention of the Priest could not be necessary because if so the Salvation of Souls would depend on the will of a man who might be so wicked as to administer the Sacraments without intention he aggravated the inconveniences of that opinion by this argument that if a Child baptised without intention should become a Bishop he not being truly baptised all the Priests that he might ordain would not be Priests and could not administer true Sacraments and that so many Millions of Souls would perish by the Crime of one single man He therefore concluded that the intention which is necessary is an external intention that may be gathered from the Ceremonies and is signified by visible actions which fully agrees with the opinion of the Protestants that overture was rejected though the Council was stunned with the weight of his reasons no man being in a condition to make him an Answer They decided against the fourteenth without any Dispute that it is false That the Sacraments have onely been instituted for the quickning of Faith There happened much less Dispute about the seventeen Articles of Baptism for without any Debate it was defined 1. That in the Roman Church there is true Baptism secondly that it is absolutely necessary to Salvation In the third place that Baptism administred by Hereticks is true Baptism and so of all the other propositions that were attributed to the Protestants which were condemned with great Unanimity The last of the Articles about Confirmation which related to the manner of administring it occasioned a somewhat greater Noise The Divines would have the Bishop onely to be the Minister of Confirmation but the action of Pope Gregory the Great puzled them This Pope permitted a simple Priest to confirm But the Cordeliers and all the School of Scotus who attribute this Power onely to the Bishop alledged that that had never been but once permitted by St. Gregory and that perhaps that action was no true Sacrament Thomas did indeed confess that properly the Bishop is the Minister of Confirmation but he said that a Priest might administer it by a permission from the Pope Whilst these matters were canvassing in the Congregation for Doctrine in the other Congregation where the Cardinal di Monte presided they treated about the means of reforming the abuses which had crept into the Administration of the Sacraments and it was ordained 1. That the Sacraments of the Church should be conferred gratis and no man allowed to take any Profit Alms or voluntary Gift upon any pretext whatsoever 2. That the Sacrament of Baptism should not be administred but in Churches and that in Mother Churches where there are baptismal Fonts and Chapels except in Cases of Necessity and when the Children of Great Princes were to be baptised 3. That no excommunicate Person should be admitted to be a Godfather nor any other under the age of fourteen and that they should not admit but of one God-father besides that there were some Orders made for regulating the Decency of Baptism but they are not very important There was not so much jangling amongst the Canonists about Reformation as had been among the Divines concerning the matter of Doctrine and yet they had much adoe to agree about the gratuitous way of administring the Sacraments The rigider sort would not have had it allowed to the Church-men to accept of any Present Alms or voluntary Offering under pretence of any contrary Custome and pressed hard these words of the Gospel freely have ye received freely give they added many Canons denouncing Anathema's out of the ancient Councils against that kind of Simony The Cardinal di Monte who otherways was not very zealous for Reformation powerfully backt that Party But others more remiss maintained that voluntary Offerings might be taken they produced for themselves a Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage which allows the taking of what is offered by him that brings a Child to be baptised above all they defended their Cause by the sixty sixth Chapter of the fourth Council of Lateran held under Innocent the third which permits it as a laudable Custome to give Offerings at the Administration of the Sacraments The Cardinal di Monte made answer that that sixty sixth Chapter of the fourth Council of Lateran ought to be understood of Offerings that have been always setled in the Church as Tithes first Fruits and Offerings that are made at the Altar and because they could not agree upon the matter they referred it to a general Congregation but the same difficulties hindred the Conclusion of that Point there also In the general Congregation they had much adoe to agree about the form of the Decrees concerning the Doctrine of the Sacraments At length they framed fourteen Canons with Anathema's concerning the Doctrine of the Sacraments in general ten about that of Baptism and three concerning that of Confirmation The Divines desired that besides the Anathema's Chapters might be drawn up as had been done in the point of Justification for publishing and declaring the Doctrine of the Church But they found it to be a very difficult matter by reason of the diversity of opinions They could not be so fortunate in this as they had been in the preceding Session when they found Ambiguous Terms that gave content to all for on the present Subject they could not hit upon Terms which did not cross either one side or other and that they had no mind to do being willing to please all Parties So that the Council resolved to rest
ever done it but that of Basil the least action whereof they scrupled to imitate they added that the coming of the Lutherans to the Council would onely serve to seduce people because they would not forbear their Dogmatical Cant that on the whole if they refused to submit that safe conduct would be dishonourable to the Council from which they required a compliance which ought never to be granted to Hereticks To remove all these difficulties they thought of giving a safe Conduct in general terms wherein the Protestants should not be named but onely designed under the Title of Church-men and Seculars of the German Nation that so if at any other time necessity did require they might say that by these terms none were meant but Catholicks Whilst they were consulting at Rome about the safe Conduct at Trent points of Doctrine were under examination and that inquiry was not so calm and peaceable as the other about the Anathema's and Canons against Protestants for it was impossible to keep the Jacobins and Cordeliers from going together by tho ears about the matter of Transubstantiation The Jacobins pretended that the body of our Saviour is made present in the Eucharist by way of Production because the Body of Jesus Christ without coming down from Heaven where it is in its natural being is rendered present in the Bread by a reproduction of the same substance according to which Doctrine the substance according to which Doctrine the substance of the Bread is changed into the substance of our Lord's Body The Cordeliers on the other hand defended that Transubstantiation which is called Adductive they alledged that our Lord's Body is brought down from Heaven not by a successive but momentany change and that the substance of Bread is not changed into the substance of the Body of Jesus Christ but that the Flesh and Bloud of Jesus Christ succeeds into the place of the substance of the Bread being conveyed thither from another place Each Party maintained their opinions with wonderfull heat branding one anothers with absurdities and contradictions The Electour of Cologne who had had the patience to hear these wretched janglings said very pleasantly that both Parties were in the right when they refuted and charged one another with absurdities but that they seemed all of them to be out of the way when they asserted their opinions because they spoke nothing that was Sense or Intelligible at length seeing there was no declaring for one Party without offending the other they satisfied them both by couching the Decree in very general terms In the same Congregation they discoursed of many abuses that concerned the Eucharist which ought to be reformed such as are the failings in reverence and respect to the holy Sacrament It was complained of that they did not kneel before it that they let it mould in the Pixes that it was administred with little reverence and that they took money from Communicants This last abuse was committed particularly at Rome where the Communicants carried in one hand a hollow Taper and a piece of money in the Taper which was the Priests see It was resolved that Canons should be made against that abuse and many more of the like nature The original of the Jurisdiction of the Tribunals of the Church with their progress At the same time other Congregations were held consisting onely of Doctors of the Canon Law for handling the matter of Discipline the Head that was examined was that of the Jurisdiction of Bishops The end the Bishops proposed to themselves was not the rectifying of the abuses of that Jurisdiction by restraining it to the just and lawfull bounds whereby it was limited in the Apostles time and in the primitive Ages of the Church on the contrary they would have enlarged it by exempting it from the power and attempts of the Court of Rome That Jurisdiction in the first Ages was onely grounded on the sixth Chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians wherein St. Paul exhorts believers not to bring their Causes before Infidels but to chuse out amongst themselves fit persons to compose their differences but because the Tribunal which St. Paul establishes in that place was merely a tribunal of Charity which had no coercive power so the Sentences that past there were onely Verdicts of Arbitration which men stood by if they thought fit by the six and fiftieth Chapter of the second Book of the Constitutions attributed to St. Clement it appears that the Bishop and Priests met every Munday for determining the affairs of their Flock And it rarely happened that any one appealed from these Decisions because of the great respect that men in those days had for the Church But after the times of persecution were over the Bishops supported by the Emperours who were become Christians erected Real Tribunals the Decrees and Sentences whereof were put in execution by the Authority of the Magistrate It is said that Constantine ordained that the Sentences of Bishops should be without appeal and be put in execution by the Secular Judges and that if one of the Parties should desire that a Process commenced before a Secular Judge might be referred to the Tribunal of the Bishop the reference should be granted in spight of all opposition either from the Judge or the adverse Party In the year three hundred sixty five the Emperour Valens enlarged that Jurisdiction and Possidius reports that St. Austin was taken up in those trials of Civil matters many times even till night which troubled him much because it took him off from the true functions of his Ministery That Law of Constantine in favour of this Tribunal of Bishops was revoked or at least limited by the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius for they ordained that Bishops should decide in no Causes but those of Religion and in Civil matters when both Parties consented to it In the year four hundred and fifty two the Emperour Valentinian confirmed that Law which restrained the power of Bishops Justinian restored to them part of what they had been deprived of allowing them besides the Causes of Conscience power to take cognizance of the Crimes of the Clergy and to perform several other acts of Jurisdiction over Laics And thus by the indiscreet favour of Emperours the power of the Church which is all Spiritual became a Carnal Dominion In the following Ages the Jurisdiction and Authority of the Bishops got ground apace and especially in the Western Church because the chief of the Clergy were the ablest Statesmen they were commonly of Princes Councils and managed and Civil matters That was the reason that in a short time they grew to be sole Judges of all Causes Civil and Criminal of the Clergy and that they extended their Jurisdiction over Laicks under various pretexts for instance they took upon them to Judge of the Validity of last Will and Testaments to make Inventories and apply Seals under pretext that Widows and Orphans are recommended to the care of the Church
Deacon three Bishops whereas for Consecrating a Bishop three are sufficient and one for Ordaining a Priest How difficult a matter was it to get so many Bishops together and how chargeable must that be especially in Germny where Bishops are very thin and at a great distance one from another These Degradations were performed with great Ceremonies in Pontifical Habit and extraordinary concourse of People The matter was very long canvassed but the Council Judged it not expedient to abolish the use of Degradations onely it was thought fit to find out some way of facilitating them that they might be done with less trouble Whilst the Council was thus taken up the Cardinal Legate had time to receive news from Rome So soon as it came without telling the Council that he had written and without communicating his answers he called the General Congregation and had it concluded according as it was resolved by the Pope that they should grant the Protestants a safe Conduct in general terms and that they should refer the point of the Cup to another Session Amongst the points that were to be handled again the Communion of young Children was one and the Article of retrenching the Cup was divided into three others thereby to multiply them and that they might not be necessitated to resume a Controversie which had already been decided for one point omitted or forgot session 13 Thirteenth Session the eleventh of October 1551 The eleventh of October the Session was held with the usual Ceremonies Mass was said by the Bishop of Majorca and the Sermon Preached by the Archbishop of Torne Then were read the Decree the Chapters of Doctrine the Canons and the Anathema's for asserting the Real Presence the Sacramental Manducation Transubstantiation the Concomitancy the Adoration of the Sacrament the Reservation of the Kinds the Necessity of Confession and the other points that were opposed by the Lutherans and Protestants The Decree of Reformation began with a grave Exhortation to Bishops to use their Jurisdiction moderately then it ordained that it should not be lawfull to Appeal from the Judgment of Bishops before Definitive Sentence That when there is place for an Appeal and that the Pope shall grant Commission in partibus that is on the Places that none shall be Commissionated but the Metropolitan or his great Vicar and if they be suspected that none can be Commissionated but neighbouring Bishops To lessen the difficulty of Degradations it ordained that one Bishop with as many Abbots as the Canons required Bishops might Degrade Clerks To satisfie the Bishops as to Exemptions it ordained that the Bishops might Judge of these Exemptions and of Favours obtained upon false Suggestions and annull them in quality of Subdelegates of the holy See But the Council reserved to the Pope the Cognisance of greater Causes and that the Causes of Bishops wherein the nature of the crime required Personal appearance should be brought before the Pope and be determined by him In the same Decree of Reformation there were some other Regulations that tended a little to the satisfaction of the Bishops that they might the more casily bear the Yoke of the Church of Rome but in all those places where any thing of Authority was granted them they had no power to act but in quality of the Delegates of the holy See After that a Decree for deferring the Article of the Cup and the Safe-conduct which the Council granted the Protestants were publickly read The Ambassadours of the Electour of Brandenburg a Protestant Prince appear at the Council At the same Session appeared Christopher Strasfen and John Hofman Ambassadours from Joachim Electour of Brandenburg a Protestant Prince Christopher Strasfen one of the Ambassadours made a long speech wherein in very civil but general terms he assured the Fathers of the Council of the respect his Master had for them and mentioned nothing at all of the matter of Religion The Council made answer by their Promooter and amongst other things told him that with much Joy the Fathers had heard from his mouth that that Prince submitted to the Council and promised to obey its Decrees In the mean while the Ambassadour had said no such thing but they thought they had gained a great point in so interpreting the Complements and civil Expressions that the Ambassadour had made use of All men made observations upon the Conduct of the Electour and the Council It was easily perceived that the Electour intended to observe the best measures he could with the Council that the Court of Rome might not cross the Election of his Son Frederick to the Archbishoprick of Magdebourg which had been made by the Chapter but the prudence of the Council was much more admired who had so dextrously turned the sense of the Electour's Complements to an engagement of submission According to the intimation that was made to the Abbot of Bellosana they intended to have given an answer to the King of France but no Abbot appeared he returned by order of his Master immediately after he had made his Protestation It was not the mind of the Court of France that the Ambassadour should expect the Session to enter into a debate which could not in the conclusion but be of troublesome consequence since the Pope and Spaniards who were the Parties in that affair must also have been the Judges The Apparitours made a Proclamation at the Church-door that if any one was there for the most Christian King he should appear but though no man appeared yet the answer was read which contained Complaints of the King's proceedings and Protestations on the part of the Council that they wore not assembled upon any private interest but for the general good of all Christendom and the extirpation of Heresies after all they prayed him to send his Prelates to the Council not to make use of any other means but to think of his Name of the most Christian King and to sacrifice his particular Quarrels to the general good of Christendom The Decrees of the Session were forthwith printed and all People reflected upon them according to their several Passions and Interests The Protestants failed not to observe a contradiction betwixt the first Chapter of Doctrine and the sourth with the second Canon In the first Chapter the Council saith that hardly can one express the manner of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and in the sourth Chapter it saith that that manner hath been convenienter proprie called Transubstantiation and in the second Canon the Council saith that it is apâ—issime called so it was likewise thought that the Council had made use of a kind of an improper and incommodious expression as to the point of Consecration because it says that Jesus Christ after the Benediction declared that that which he gave was his Real Body which seems to insinuate that the change was made by the Benediction so that these words This is my Body could be no more but a
Spaniards say that the Presidents spoke in the Style of very humble Servants but acted like very absolute Masters Afterwards the French joyned with the Ambassadours of the Emperour and King of Spain to demand that in the next Session the point of Residence which had been sufficiently examined might be decided they said farther that the King their Master expected that they would treat of Reformation before they entered upon Doctrines that the Protestants seeing the Church reformed might more easily submit to the Decisions that should be made in points of Doctrine Cardinal Simoneta answered cunningly as to the matter of Reformation that it was a difficult point seeing it depended in part on the correction of the abuses which Princes committed in bestowing of Benefices and that he had a special regard to the Kings of France who by virtue of a Concordat made betwixt Leo X. and Francis I. had the Nomination to all great Benefices by which Canonical Elections were abolished This work spoken in season stopt the Ambassadours mouths as to that particular but it was not so easie a matter to stop them as to the point of Residence the excuse that the Legates made being evidently ridiculous for they alledged that the matter had not been sufficiently examined and nevertheless nothing was ever more what the Legates reason wanted in force it had sufficiently in Authority which gives weight to the weakest Arguments so great was the sharpness of contention that this matter occasioned that many of the Bishops beyond the Alpes were just ready to protest and be gone But the Ambassadours who saw that the Pope desired no better than to have an occasion to break up the Council put a stop to that they thought it more expedient to wave the points of Residence and of the Continuation of the Council than to give an occasion of a Rupture Nevertheless the Pope who earnestly sought for an opportunity of dissolving the Council resolved to declare according to the desire of the King of Spain that that Assembly was a continuation of the Council of Paul III. and Julius III. that he might thereby give occasion to the Germans and French to protest and withdraw He therefore sent orders to his Legates to make that Declaration which troubled them extremely They had had much adoe to prevail with the French and Germans not to insist any more on that particular and they could not tell how they could handsomely come off with it They therefore sent to Rome Cardinal Altemps the Pope's Nephew to inform him of the State of Affairs and to take him off of that resolution which would doe great Damage to his Reputation and occasion the dissolution of the Council session 20 And now the fourth of June being come the Session was held wherein the Commissions of the Ambassadours of the Archbishop of Salisburg and King of France were read Cardinal Altemps and the Prelates of the faction of the Court of Rome had been prickt to the quick by Pibrac's harangue so that they resolved to give him an answer this Session in a strain capable to repell the Insolence of that prating Barrister for so they called him Baptist a Castello Promooter of the Council had orders to prepare himself to answer Pibrac's Speech which he did with much sharpness according to his Instructions he made an Apology for the precedent Councils which had been blamed and justified this from the indirect Reflexions that had been cast upon it of swaying with the interests of Princes and giving occasion to the snares of the Devil by a damnable compliance The French were not very well pleased with that Harangue nor indeed was it the Legates intention to please them Afterwards the Decree was read which was onely an Act giving reasons why the Publication of the Decrees was put off till the next Session which was appointed to be the twenty sixth of July They propose in the Congregations to treat of the Communion in both kinds and of the Communion of Children In the Congregation that was held in the Afternoon the same fourth day of June six Articles were proposed concerning matters to be handled in the ensuing Session to wit the Communion of young Children and the Communion in both kinds But they could not tell how to set about it because these Points had been already handled in the Council of Julius and not decided some were of opinion that they should make use of the matter that had been prepared to their hand They alledged that if they must hear the Sentiments of fourscore and eight Divines that were at Council upon that subject it would make tedious work that therefore it was better and a more compendious way to publish the Decrees which were already framed Here the Champians for the Divine Right of Residence took occasion to renew the Quarel and thirty Bishops moved that the Point of the Cup might be adjusted in a few days provided the Method that had been proposed were followed but that it was now time according to the promise that past to treat of the Point of Residence others again warmly opposed it so that heats beginning to arise there was like to have been some noise if the Cardinal of Mantua had not wisely pacified them promising to treat of Residence when they came to handle the Sacrament of Orders But Cardinal Simoneta was not satisfied that the Cardinal of Mantua had inconfiderately engaged to bring the Point of Residence upon the Stage again without the Pope's Order The Germans present their Demands to the Council tending to Reformation which amaze the Pope and oblige him to look to his own Security The Germans had some satisfaction in that they had obtained the Communion in both kinds to be handled and thought it now time to propose the things which they had orders to demand so that according to the instructions they had received from the Emperour they presented to the Legates twenty Articles of Demands tending to Reformation and particularly to the Reformation of the Court of Rome In these Memoires they demanded that the number of Cardinals should not exceed twenty six that no more Dispensations nor Exemptions should be granted against Common Law that the Monasteries should be subjected to the Bishops that Plurality of Benefices should be taken away that Bishops should be obliged to Residence without spending time in cavilling about the question whether it be of Divine right or no that Ecclesiastical Constitutions should be restrained to a less number and that they should not have the same Authority as the Laws of God that it should not be lawfull to excommunicate any but such as were notoriously guilty of mortal Sin that Divine Service should be celebrated in a Language intelligible to the People that whatsoever is not contained in Scripture should be left out of Missals and Breviaries that Priests and Monks should be reformed according to the standard of the ancient institution that somewhat of the Rigour of Positive Laws
setled by Lay-men with intention that they should be likewise governed by Laicks They said that that was the way whereby the Clergy had appropriated to themselves the Revenues of Colleges Hospitals and Pious Foundations when under pretext of being the Administratours they made themselves absolute Masters of them Now-a-days cried they instead of restoring to Colleges and Hospitals what the Church-men have taken from them they put into their hands what remains and what they have not as yet invaded The Parliament of Paris especially according to its Maximes lookt upon that as an encroachment upon the Civil Jurisdiction because the Clergy medled with and disposed of the Goods of Seculars In the same manner they censured the Decree that gives Bishops power over last Wills and Testaments for that Decree ordains that Alterations made in Wills by permission obtained from Rome is not to take effect untill the Bishop have taken Cognisance whether or not the permission has been obtained by fraud and upon false information They thought Wills to be matters of mere Civil right which the Clergy ought not to meddle in The Pope on the other hand was extremely well satisfied with the Actions of this Session and indeed he could not otherwise chuse since nothing had been done there but according to his instructions and the Orders that the Presidents had punctually observed in spight of the opposition of all those who favoured not his interests He took the surest measures he could for the future that matters might run in the same Chanel He feared the Cardinal of Lorrain knowing him to be a man of vast designs and dreaded the coming of the French who hold Maximes so contrary to his Authority That Assembly of Ambassadours who met at the House of the Imperialists gave him a great deal of Jealousie but he resolved to send a fresh supply of Italian Bishops to overpower the Tramontani by number as well as by caballing And in the mean time sent very civil Complements to the Secretary of the Marquess of Pescara to the Portugal Suisse Venetian and Florentine Ambassadours for the Zeal and Fidelity they had expressed to the Holy See which were not lost for by these Civilities he engaged them more and more to his Interests THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT BOOK VII PIUS IV. THE French Ambassadours were no sooner come from the Session than they received a Dispatch from their Master which ordered them to make fresh instances for a delay New Instructions come to the French Ambassadours It was now too late and therefore according to the Instructions they had received they demanded that at least matters of Doctrine might be laid aside and onely Reformation handled that the French might have time to come before all the Points of Doctrine should be determined seeing there remained no more to be discussed but the Points of the Sacraments of Orders and Marriage which would soon be examined and then the French would onely come to the Close of the Council whereas the head of Reformation being very large considerable progress might be made therein whilst the French were on their way and enough to doe after they were come The Legates desired their Demands in Writing and the Ambassadours presented them Memorials wherein the King in ample manner approved all that had been done as to the Decisions about matters of Faith but withall declared that he could not be satisfied that they proceeded with so much earnestness and precipitation in matters of less importance and did not mind that which was most necessary to wit the Reformation of Manners and Discipline which was the onely means of remedying the present Troubles of the Church that these Decisions of Points of Faith were on the one hand more than needless in respect of Catholicks because they were matters not controverted amongst them and on the other hand they did onely more and more alienate the minds of those who were separated from the Church whom to reduce by such means was a ridiculous fancy After all because the manner of proceeding in the Council was no way consistent with the Liberty of the Ancient Councils where all had freedom to propose what they thought good for the Benefit of the Church the King demanded that the same Liberty might be restored to the Council and particularly to Kings and Princes who sent their Ambassadours thither and that so the Clause Proponentibus Legatis should be struck out The Emperour's Ambassadours presented Memorials which demanded the same things to wit that they should set about the work of Reformation with diligence and that every Nation might have the Liberty to commissionate two Deputies to propose to the Council what might be thought necessary for the good of the Church The Legates made the same answer to both that they could not break off the Method that had been all along observed in handling matters of Faith and Doctrine at the same time that they treated of Reformation and that the manner of proposing to the Legates what any one desired might be handled had been found so good that it was not fit it should be altered The French expressed great dissatisfaction at this Answer They spoke openly of these new recruits of Italians which were every foot sent to the Council to thwart the designs of the Cardinal of Lorrain However the Pope did not lay so much stress on his Italians but that he used all the other means he could to divert the Cardinal of Lorrain from coming to the Council He ordered his Legate in France the Cardinal of Ferrara to speak to him and gave him intimation by other hands that his coming to the Council would procure him no great Reputation because he would find all things there done to his hand The matter of the Sacrament of Orders is handled All the Arts that the French and Germans could use to thwart and prolong the Council were no hinderance to the Legates who spurred them on to the handling of the Point of the Sacrament of Orders which they had reduced into Eight Articles For examination of that matter they appointed four distinct Congregations of Divines which were as so many Chambers giving each Chamber Commission to examine two of them and these are the Articles that were proposed 1. Whether Orders be a true Sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ 2. Whether Orders be one or more Sacraments 3. Whether the Hierarchy consisting of Bishops Archbishops c. be lawfull whether all Christians be Mass-Priests whether the Gall of the People and Magistrate be necessary for the Confirmation of the Ministry and whether a Priest may become a Lay-man 4. Whether under the New Testament there be a visible Sacrifice and a Power to offer up the Body of our Lord. 5. Whether Ordination confers the Holy Ghost and imprints a Character 6. Whether Unction and the other Ceremonies be essential to the Sacrament of Orders 7. Whether the Priest be properly inferiour to the Bishop whether the Power
the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorrain loaded him with Complements for his Holiness desiring him that he would beseech his Holiness not to take it ill that the King and they by Orders from him did demand things which they judged necessary for the wellfare of France and at the same time and by the same hand offered the Pope his Mediation for taking up the differences about the Institution of Bishops and Residence These Memoires of the French Ambassadours were given to the Legates without the hearty condescension of the Prelates of that Nation For there were some Articles amongst them that tended to the Diminution both of the Authority and Revenues of the Bishops which went against the Hair But they consented that they might be presented to the Council in hopes that the Spanish Bishops who are Great Lords and jealous of their Grandure would have opposed them When they saw that the Memoires were sent to Rome they perceived that it would fall to the Pope's share to cut and carve in them as he had done in all the rest and they were afraid that he might compound with the King of France to their Cost in sacrificing to him the interest of the Bishops to make him spare the Court of Rome as it had been done betwixt Francis the First and Leo X. when they made the Concordat And therefore they began to make secret Cabals to get the Articles that concerned them struck out of the Memoires But Lansac perceiving it called them together and rebuked them severely for daring to oppose the Will of the King There were now two Bishops in Deputation at Rome the Bishops of Vintimiglia and Viterbo The first was employed to make fresh Remonstrances about the Subject of the Institution of Bishops and their Residence that the Pope might put the Decree into another form than that which he had formerly sent He arrived the first of January having made his Journey in seven days He gave the Pope an account of all that past in the Council and of the different dispositions of the Members of it The Pope immediately held a Congregation of Cardinals about the Point of the Institution of Bishops which was most urgent And it was there resolved that the Decision should be sent to the Legates in this form That Bishops hold the chief rank in the Church dependant on the Bishop of Rome by whom they are admitted and received in partem solicitudinis It was upon the main the same with the former but the form a little softer and the Pope for a recompence of the qualification which he had suffered to be made in the Canon of the Institution of Bishops would have the Canon that related to his own Authority to run in these terms That the Pope hath Authority to feed and to govern the Church Universal in place of Jesus Christ who hath imparted to him as his Vicar General all his Authority And ordered his Legates that in the Chapter of Doctrine they should enlarge more upon the matter and make use of the Terms of the Council of Florence which saith that the Holy See that is to say the Pope has the Primacy over all the Church that he is the Successour of St. Peter who was Prince of the Apostles that he is the true Vicar of Jesus Christ the Head of all the Churches the Father and Master of all Christians to whom the Lord hath given full power to govern the Church Universal He enjoyned the Legates not to deviate from that form which had been authorised by a General Council At the same time that he might prevent the designs of the French who would have had a Pope elected by the Council in case the present Pope had died he published a Bull wherein he declared that having intention to goe to Bologna in case he should die in his Journey he ordained that his Successour should not be chosen but at Rome The Bishop of Viterbo who was charged with the Memoires of the French arrived a little time after the instructions of the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been dispatched The Pope very impatiently heard the Memoires read but the Bishop of Viterbo pacified him a little by giving him hopes that if he condescended to some of these Articles a part might be cut off and the rest moderated but particularly he gave him ease when he assured him that the greatest part of the French Bishops disliked those Reformations and that they were ready to oppose them The Pope held a Congregation upon that Subject and it was therein resolved that the Articles should be committed to Doctours of the Canon Law to make their observations upon them At the same time the Pope sent Orders to the Cardinal of Ferrara his Legate in France to represent to the King that some of these Propositions tended to the Diminution of the Royal Authority because they deprived the King of the Collation of Benefices and amongst others of Abbeys that the disposal of Benefices was a very commodious Privilege to him for rewarding his faithfull Servants that to raise the Authority of Bishops was not the way to strengthen the Authority of the King and that the more powerfull Bishops were the more troublesome they were to Princes He sent his Legate likewise Orders to give the King the forty thousand Crowns remaining unpay'd of the hundred thousand which he had obliged himself to furnish him but with all that he should not part from them but upon the Condition that he had till them required I mean the abolition of the Pragmatick Sanction in all the Parliaments He prayed also the King to consider that by diminishing the Revenues of the Holy See he would be deprived of means to procure Respect and Obedience that the Tithes of Tithes were by the Law due to the chief Priest and that they had been wisely converted into Annats and concluded with an exhortation to the King that he would sent new Instructions to his Ambassadours He sent likewise to Trent the Censures and Observations which the Canonists and Divines had made upon the Memoires of the French year 1563 The Minute of the Decree concerning the Pope's Authoritycomes from Rome and meets with much contradiction especially from the French The Courier who brought to Trent the Answer to the Remonstrances which the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been charged with arrived on the fourteenth of January and next day was the time appointed for perfixing the day of the Session A Congregation General was held and it was therein resolved that that deliberation should be put off till the fourth of February because they could not as yet certainly tell when matters might be in a readiness The Legates distributed Copies of the Minute of the Decree which was sent from Rome touching the Institution of Bishops and declared that they would begin the Congregations again for consulting about it These Minutes had the approbation of the Patriarchs and oldest Archbishops who gave their opinions first But when it
should be left for the following Session The like was done with the last Article which contained a Confession of Faith and the Form of an Oath In that Oath were contained all the Doctrines and Articles of Faith which distinguish the Roman Catholick Belief from that of the Protestants such as are the Superiority of the Pope the Authority of Councils the Truth of Traditions the Number of Seven Sacraments the Real Presence Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass It was not onely projected that all who should be received into Ecclesiastick Dignities should swear that they believed all those things but likewise that Princes should admit of no man to any Office whatsoever till first they took that Oath and swore to that Confession Having resolved to lay that Article aside till another time they framed the Decree about Residence leaving out all that might displease those who held it to be of Divine Right and the others who affirmed it onely of Positive Constitution The Cardinal of Lorrain upon this occasion did the Pope great Service He had not long before received a very obliging Letter from him and the Pope had invited him to come to Rome that he might confer with him which the Cardinal had in a manner promised to doe But he durst not absolutely declare himself before he was informed what the Court of France thought of that Journey He did therefore all he could to dispatch business that so the next Session might be held on the prefixed day and that the Council proceeding apace he might make his Journey to Rome see a speedy Conclusion of the Council and then return to France This being his aim he drove at Expedition and was the Cause of stiffing a great Process which was occasioned by a matter of very small importance And that was in relation to the Functions of the Inferiour Orders from the Deacon even to the Porter about which the Divines kept a great Clutter The Custome had been for a long time discontinued of having consecrated Persons to perform the Functions of these Lower Orders as shutting Doors lighting Candles ringing Bells and even Reading these Offices being discharged by Laicks Now the Council thought it necessary to restore the Order and to cause those Functions to be performed by Consecrated Persons according to the Ceremonies of the Roman Pontifical and that with design to silence Libertines who maintained that these Offices were not Sacraments But when the Bishops were about to come to a Conclusion and to frame the Decree they were stopt by a difficulty which is obvious to any man for they who were not of opinion that these Functions should be restored to those who had received Orders asked what Necessity there was of a Spiritual Character for performing of Actions merely Corporeal as shutting of Doors and ringing of Bells The Cardinal of Lorrain gave his opinion that that matter should be left to the Disposal of the Bishops which prevailed All were now for condescending that they might come to an end Nevertheless the Spaniards held out still and persisted to have Residence declared to be of Divine Right as well as the Institution of Bishops The Cardinal of Lorrain brought over several but a great many resisted his Solicitations On the other hand the Archbishop of Otranto and his Adherents who were afraid of the least shadow that might entrench upon the Authority of the Pope would not consent to the Decree that the Legates had drawn up concerning Residence because it said that all who have care of Souls are obliged by the Command of God to look to their Flocks They said that it was impossible to look to their Flocks without residing If one be obliged to look to his Flock by the Command of God he is by Consequence obliged by the Command of God to reside and so Residence must be of Divine Right Nor would they approve of the sixth Canon which faith that the Hierarchy hath been established by Divine Ordinance They were afraid that it might from thence be concluded that all the Orders of that Hierarchy are of Divine and not Papal Institution They said that by that means Episcopacy was declared to be of Divine Right These Minutes had been an hundred times over consulted at Rome the Legates approved of them since they had framed them the Pope's Canonists and Divines were very well satisfied with them but all that was nothing they would needs be more zealous for the Pope than the Pope was for himself Nevertheless in spight of the opposition of that Archbishop on the one hand and of the Archbishop of Granada and Bishop of Segovia on the other the Assembly went on and concluded that the Decrees must pass in that form And now the Consultations being ended and the Decrees framed the General Congregations were begun again the ninth of July for reading and examining the Decrees The Spaniards would not yield yet They made a noise in the Congregation and said that they were abus'd since that now after so long delaying to form the Chapter of the Institution of Bishops there was no notice at all taken of it They renewed their instances to have it declared to be of Divine Right and made the same Complaints and Demands about the Article of Residence But at length the Count de Luna dashed their Constancy for he called them together several times at his house and after many Skirmishes he obtained of the Archbishop of Granada the Bishop of Segovia and the rest of the most forward Prelates that they would be satisfied to deliver their opinions without Passion and insisting in their Oppositions And so on the fourteenth of July which was the Eve of the Session the Legates held the last General Congregation wherein a hundred fourscore and twelve gave their Vote for holding the Session next day and onely twenty eight were against it The Presidents obliged the Spaniards to be silent promising the Count de Luna that so soon as they had defined the Power of the Pope according as it was done by the Council of Florence they should make no more Difficulty to declare the Institution of Bishops to be of Divine Right session 23 The twenty third Session the fifteenth of July At length the fifteenth of July came on which was held that Session which had been so many times prorogued and the Decrees whereof were so impatiently expected The matter of Doctrine was digested into four Chapters and eight Canons with Anathema's In them the Council declared that Orders are a Sacrament that there is a visible Sacrifice under the Gospel for offering up of the very body and very bloud of our Lord that there are greater and lesser Orders by which one mounts as by steps to a greater Order which is that of Priesthood that Orders do imprint a Character and confer the Holy Ghost that Unction is necessary in the Sacrament that the Hierarchy is of Divine Institution that Bishops are superiour to Priests that the Consent
and the Legates obliged the Members to be very short in giving their opinions But the Spaniards who desired not the conclusion took their full swing they did not put themselves to the rack but even enlarged their discourses with design to gain time and to prolong the Council untill they might have Orders from the King of Spain The sixth Article of Reformation proposed before the former Session had been referred to this and that Article concerned the exemption of the Chapters of Spain The Spanish Ambassadour and the Bishops of that Nation were their Parties and their Deputy after he had been ordered by the Count de Luna was forced to be gone But the Legates were good Advocates for them and being assured of the assistance of the Italians they were in a fair way of gaining their Cause notwithstanding they were absent Yet the Council found out a means by giving some augmentation to the Bishops Authority over the Chapters but a great deal less than they demanded The resolution of demanding the Confirmation of the Council from the Pope In the Congregation of the twentieth of November the question was debated whether they should demand of the Pope the Confirmation of the Decrees of the Council The Archbishop of Granada maintained that it was not necessary saying that the Fathers in the sixteenth Session which was the last held under Julius III. demanded not the Pope's Confirmation that if they did not imitate their Conduct it would be thought they condemned them The Archbishop of Otranto who had always his eyes in his head for the preservation of the Authority of the Pope replyed that the Fathers of the Council at that time made it sufficiently appear that they held the Confirmation of the Pope to be necessary because they commanded not the observation of the Canons which they had made but onely exhorted to it That opinion prevailed without difficulty but there remained still a scruple to wit whether they should stay for the Pope's Answer at Trent after they had demanded his Confirmation or otherwise whether upon concluding the Council it should be demanded of the Pope and so break up immediately without expecting an Answer The Cardinal of Lorrain whose two Predominant Passions were to dispatch and to please the Pope was of the last opinion and there is nothing more clear than that this Cardinal and the French who were of the mind that the Confirmation of the Decrees of the Council should be demanded of the Pope did exceedingly forget themselves They had kept a great clutter to hinder that the Pope should be declared Superiour to a Council and yet all of a sudden they betray their own Cause by the greatest weakness in the World For to demand the Pope's Confirmation of the Council is a Declaration plain enough that it is inferiour to him no Superiour Court ever demanding the Confirmation of its Decrees from an inferiour The Cardinal of Lorrain who would have all things make for the greater honour of the Council or rather for the greater satisfaction of the Pope essayed to bring back to Trent the French Ambassadours that were at Venice but they would not because that though the Chapter of the Reformation of Princes was revoked yet many other things had passed in the Council to the prejudice of the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the President du Ferrier would not by his presence countenance those bad Regulations When the matter of Reformation was digested into the Method that they intended to have it in the Legates applied themselves to the Doctrine and the Council appointed the Cardinal of Warmia and eight other Prelates to frame the Decree concerning Purgatory the Invocation of Saints Relicks and Images they all jumpt in one design not to start any Controversie that might retard them Nevertheless they found themselves a little puzled about the Article of Purgatory for some were for having the place determined where this Purgatory is as the Council of Florence had done and that it should be defined that the Pains which are suffered there are the Torments of Fire Others objected that all Divines agreed not as to that and that if they should offer to make a Decision thereupon they could not avoid falling into debates which they were willing to shun so that they were of opinion to make use of general terms and to enjoyn Bishops to see that that Doctrine should be carefully taught and this opinion was followed There was no difficulty about the Point of the Invocation of Saints there was somewhat more in relation to Images touching the nature of the Worship that is due to them but it went not far The Decree of the Reformation of Monks is revised Some Prelates were likewise deputed to revise the Reformation of Monks and Nuns and these Deputies joyned with the Congregation which had been appointed a long time before for that Reformation In that Revisal there were but a few matters altered By the third Chapter of this Reformation all the Monasteries of Mendicant Friers were allowed to enjoy Lands and immoveable Possessions notwithstanding the Rule of their Institution which forbids them to possess any thing in proper The General of the Order of the Minims who was a Spaniard demanded that his Order might be excepted out of that indulgence because they would exactly follow the Rule of St. Francis the General of the Capuchins demanded the same and it was granted to both Lainez General of the Jesuits made the same demand but distinguished their Colleges from their houses of Profession saying Bishops and other Beneficiaries to make good use of the Revenues of the Church used these words that they are appointed faithfull Stewards of these Revenues for the good of the Poor That Clause displeased the Bishop of Sulmona and a great many others it is easie to guess at the reason but what ever it was the Clause was struck out In fine it was proposed in the same Congregation to anticipate the day of the Session and to hold it next day and if al could not be dispatched in one day to continue it the day following that so the Acts might be signed on Sunday after and all the Prelates have Liberty to depart Fourteen Spanish Bishops opposed it but the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Imperial Ambassadours dealt earnestly with the Count de Luna to make him condescend to it At length he was willing but upon two Conditions first that the Pope would regulate the matters that remained still to be done and then that it should be inserted in the Chapters of Indulgences that they should not be given Gratis lest that might be prejudicial to the Croisadoes of Spain session 25 The five and twentieth and last Session the 3. December 1563. All difficulties being surmounted on Friday the third of December the Prelates and Ambassadours went to Church with the usual Ceremonies Jerome Ragazzone Titular Bishop of Nazianzo made the Sermon in praise of the Council and recapitulated the
all the Magistrates of the Christian World do affirm the Council to have erred That Exemptions of Ecclesiasticks is a point of Doctrine wherein it is confessed that the Council erred I go on to the Exemptions of Ecclesiasticks which are of near affinity to the preceding Article The Bishops of the Council of Trent in the Decree we just spake of by them intitled the Reformation of Princes had made little Sovereigns of the Clergy independent of the Secular Power exempted from pleading before a Temporal Judge for whatsoever Cause or Crime 'T is true this Decree did not pass by reason of the great opposition made by the Ambassadors But the Council endeavoured to supply the matter for in the twentieth Chapter of General Reformation in the 25th Session it ordains that the Immunities Exemptions and Privileges of Ecclesiasticks be ratified and confirmed to them according to the Constitutions of Popes and Councils and according to the holy Canons Now these Constitutions and these Canons the observance whereof it commands are those that withdraw Ecclesiasticks from the Power of Secular Judgment and subject them only to the Judges of the Church And indeed since the Council the Clergy have with the utmost vigour endeavoured the maintaining themselves in the possession of these Privileges Every body knows the famous Quarrel that upon this occasion happened between Pope Paul V. and the Venetians and made so great a noise in the beginning of this present Century The Republick of Venice in the year 1605. made a Law forbidding Ecclesiasticks to acquire Lands and fixt Possessions and before that there was another Law in force restraining the building of Churches Hospitals and Monasteries without leave obtained of the Senate At the same time the Republick caused to be imprisoned Brandolino Valde-Marino Abbot of Nerveze and Scipione Saracino Canon of Vicenza the first as being guilty of Rapine and Theft accused oâ— poysoning his Father and his Brother oâ— Incest with his Sister of having caused several Persons to be assassinated and oâ— employing Magick to corrupt Womenâ— the second for having broken off the Seal put upon the Bishops Court by the Magistrates and for attempting the chastity of a Widow of Quality with most villaâ—nous outrages Pope Paul V. looked up on these Laws and the imprisoning of thesâ— Men as breaches of the Privileges of thâ— Clergy that the Council of Trent haâ— confirmed He commanded the Venetian to abrogate these Laws and to send thâ— two Prisoners to be tryed by the Nuncâ— at Venice forasmuch as the proceeding of the Republick in this matter was contrary to the Canons and Constitutions of the Councils And upon the Republicks refusing to do it in the year 1606. he thundred his Bull of Excommunication and Interdiction against it The business was made up in the year 1607. by the mediation of the King of France and by the negotiation of Cardinal de Joyeuse and Cardinal du Perron The Interdict was taken off but the Republick was obliged to give up the Prisoners to the Pope and to suspend the execution of those Laws till the Parties that is to say the Church and the State had setled the matter These Ecclesiastical Immunities were things unknown to the Primitive times The great and good Emperour Constantine did in Person or by Commission hear and determine the Crimes of Ecclesiasticks without excepting so much as Cases of Schism and Heresie It is true he established a Tribunal of the Church Sozomer l. 1. c. 9. Eujeb de vita Constant l 4. c. 27. Niceph. l. 7.46 and gave a sort of Jurisdiction to Bishops for the affairs of Ecclesiasticks But still they acted as the Emperours Delegates in those Tribunals and we see that Constantine did often â—re hear Causes wherein the Bishops had before given Sentence Tom. 2. Ep. 162. St. Austin tells us that in the business of the That the diminution of Episcopal Authority is another Point of Doctrine wherein the Council of Trent is acknowledged to have erred It is not extremely necessary to enlarge upon the wrong done by the Council of Trent to Bishops in taking from them the power of hearing all the greater Causes in impowering them in most Episcopal Functions to act only as the Popes Commissaries and in confirming the Privileges of Chapters and Monasteries which dispense them from acknowledging the Ordinaries to be their Superiours The Bishops themselves do sufficiently complain of these wrongs and they have reason for by the Priviledge granted to Monks of immediate depending on the Holy See the great and numerous Congregations of Clugny and of the Cistercians all the Houses of the Mendicants and the new Order of Jesuits are not only withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction but are become so many sworn Enemies to Episcopacy Besides which by the Exemption of Chapters those Assemblies are so many thorns in the Bishops sides giving them a thousand disturbances and tiring them out by their oppositions The accused Bishops are contrary to the Canons forced and dragged to Rome to be tried their Causes are removed from their Metropolitan and Synod of the Province from whom they might expect Justice and those that seek their ruine do procure their Enemies to be named by the Pope for Commissioners to decide their Causes There is an instance of this in the troubles that hapned in France about the Doctrine of Jansenius There were four Bishops that after the condemnation of Jansenius by Innocent X. and Alexander VII kept a wrangling and cavilling a little too long in the Jesuits opinion upon the distinction of Right and Fact to avoid signing of the Formulary The good Fathers procured a Brief from the Court of Rome to interdict them by Commissaries named by the Pope These four Bishops who were the Bishops of Alez of Pamiers of Beauvais and of Anger 's defended themselves against the Interdiction by Circular Letters and by divers publick Writings wherein they cite the Ancient Canons the fifteenth of the Council of Antioch in the year 341. the seventh of the Council of Sardica 351. the Capitula of Adrian I. the Decisions of Leo IV. and of Benedict III. his Successor who lived about the middle of the Ninth Century By all which it appears that accused Bishops to be Canonically condemned ought to be tried by their fellow-Bishops of the same Province They trace the possession of this Right through the following Centuries and at length they shew that the Regulations of the Council of Trent and the Concordat between Francis I. and Leo X. cannot prejudice the Right of the Bishops and so long a Possession for that the Parliaments the Universities and the Clergy of France opposed the Concordat and the Cardinal of Lorrain made opposition in the name of all the Clergy of France then when the Gentlemen of beyond the Mountains made the Decree that impeaches this usage Which say they hath served for a ground of the refusal In the Circular Letter of the four Bishops to all the
the Decree of Gratian. In the Congregation of the tenth of July Leonard Haller Titular Bishop of Philadelphia moved that it was necessary to stay for the Germans as a few days before Daniel Barbaro Patriarch of Aquileia had demanded that they might stay for the French to the end that the Council might be called General as being made up of all Nations for there were none but Spaniards and Italians in it and these Italians almost all of them the Pope's Pensioners who most cunningly stood up for the Interests of the Court of Rome There were even some that said publickly enough that that Council was not the Council of the Universal Church but of the Pope since he did in it what he pleased and these were those who had spoken with some freedom as to the Point of Residence The Papal Party had a great pique against them which appeared so plainly that they did not think themselves secure enough even at Trent and therefore they thought of withdrawing some of them had already obtained leave amongst whom were Egidio Foscararo Bishop of Modena the Bishops of Viviers Acqui and the Archbishop of Surriento But the Ambassadour of Portugal having represented that that would do hurt to the reputation of the Council seeing the cause of their departure was generally known they were detained by fair promises of better usage for the future However there was no notice taken of the demand that was made of waiting for the coming of the German and French Prelates In the following Congregations the Chapters of Reformation were read and some Bishops spoke with a great deal of liberty As to the Point of free Ordinations the Bishop of Vegla an Island near Sclavonia said that it would be to no purpose to lay a restraint upon ordaining Bishops not to take money if at the same time it were not Decreed that no fees should be taken at Rome for Dispensations to receive Orders out of the usual times and before the Age appointed that the greatest expence was there and that the small gratuities given at Ordinations was nothing to it He farther said that when any such Dispensations were presented to him it was his custome to ask if they had cost any money and that if he found they had been bought he rejected and did not value them As to the Point concerning those that got into Priests Orders without a sufficient Estate to maintain them the Bishop of the five Churches spoke with great freedom that it was of much more importance to prevent a mans entering into Orders without having a Church and Cure to serve than to hinder him upon the account of wanting an Estate and that it was very disgracefull to the Church to have priests who had no other Employment but to live idly and take their ease upon a good fat Benefice In one of the Articles of Reformation it was ordained that great Parishes should be divided into two that they might be the better served whereupon the same Bishop said that that was good but that it was much better to divide the Bishopricks which are of so great extent that it is not possible for one man to take the care of so many Souls These opinions pleased no body neither the Prelates nor the Presidents Afterward the Bishop of Sidonia an Hungarian took the boldness to say that all these petty Reformations of the Members of the Church signified nothing so long as the Head continued without Reformation that it behoved them to begin with the greater matters and that the lesser would pass without any difficulty This liberty was very offensive to the Legates and therefore they met to consult about means of repressing that boldness John Baptista Castello Promooter of the Council who had discharged the same office in the Council under Julius III. said that the course must be taken which had been used by Cardinal Crescentio who enjoyned the Prelates silence when they did in the least deviate from the Subject that had been proposed But the Cardinal of Warmia did not approve that conduct and affirmed that God had not blest the Council of Julius because he approved not those violent methods of Cardinal Crescentio that after all it was impossible to avoid contests in Councils The Cardinal of Mantua was of the same Judgment So that they thought it sufficient to limit every one to a certain time in speaking and to make it short that so they might not have leisure to speak many things which might give disgust The day for holding the Session which was the sixteenth of July drew nigh and the Germans who had consented that nothing should be moved in it about the permission of the Cup demanded now a great deal more and urged that nothing might be done at all that so they might give time to their Bishops to come The Legates to prevent the disgrace of being so long without doing any thing would needs have the Chapters of Doctrine and Reformation which had been minuted to be published And they must be read overagain in the Congregation before they could be published in the Session which was not done without debate In the second Chapter of Doctrine these words were slipt in that the Church might as well take away the use of the Cup as it had changed the form of Baptism Jacobo Gilberto de Nogueras Bishop of Aliphe a Spaniard starting up said that that was Blasphemy because the Church had no Power to change the form of Sacraments nor to alter any thing that is essential to them and that in effect the form of Baptism had never been changed that hint was taken notice of and the Clause left out In the third Chapter it is said that he who is barred from the Cup is not deprived of any Grace necessary to Salvation and that therefore the Church has Power to retrench it The Cardinal of Warmia one of the Legates set on by some Divines observed as to that that thence it might be inferred that the Church may wholly take away the Eucharist because it is not necessary to Salvation and desired some alteration in that Clause But Cardinal Simoneta being vexed at what had past in the Congregation told the Cardinal of Warmia that he had very imprudently suffered himself to be put upon in making that Overture and that if he would everlastingly give ear to those Doctours accustomed to the cavillings of the School nothing could be concluded in the next Session The Cardinal of Warmia submitted excusing himself in that what he had done was designed for a good end In the Congregation that was held the day before the Session there happened some Debates still as in all the rest but they were not very considerable and continued not long session 21 Now it was the sixteenth of July 16. July the day appointed for the Session and the Legates Ambassadours and Prelates went to the Church with the usual Ceremonies After Mass and Sermon the Decrees were read the Decree of
Doctrine contained four Chapters and as many Canons with Anathema's wherein was decided 1. That believing Laicks are not obliged by command to communicate in both kinds 2. That the Church had very good ground for taking away the Cup and that she hath power to doe so 3. That he who receives the bread alone receives Jesus Christ entirely and is not deprived of any saving Grace 4. That the Communion of Children is not necessary In all this no notice was taken of the question whether it was expedient to allow the Cup to People that demanded it because that point was reserved for another Session as they had promised the Germans and was accordingly by a Decree referred to the following Session which is inserted in the Acts of the Council The nine Chapters of Reformation were also read The first ordains that the Collation of Orders the Dimissorial and Testimonial Letters the Seal and other things of that nature shall be given gratis without so much as taking any voluntary offering The second that no man shall receive Orders if he have not a Benefice or at least an Estate of his own to subsist on which Estate is not to be alienated without the consent of the Bishop The third that in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where there are no Distributions or where they are but small the Bishop may convert a third of the Prebends into Distributions The fourth that in great Parishes the Curates shall take the assistance of a sufficient number of Vicars and that such as are of too large an extent shall be divided and provided with new Rectours if that be judged necessary The fifth that Bishops may make Unions to perpetuity of Benefices that have cure of Souls when they are not singly sufficient for the Subsistence of a Curate The sixth that Curates who are negligent in their Duties shall have Vicars appointed them whether they will or not and that part of the profits of the Living shall be allotted to these Vicars and that if the Curates continue in Scandal they shall be deprived of their Benefices The seventh that the Bishops as Delegates of the holy See may annex the Benefices of decayed and demolished Churches to other Churches and cause Parochial Churches to be repaired The eighth that the Bishops also as Delegates of the holy See may visit Monasteries that are in Commendum to settle the observation of Discipline therein And the last Chapter abolished the Collectours or Alms-gatherers These Collectours were a sort of men who under Pretext of some pious work as the building an Hospital for the Sick the bringing up of Orphans or the like obtained Letters of Recommendation from the Bishop and with these Letters run over a whole Countrey to gather Collections under the notion of Almsdeeds Some of them also obtained a Licence from the Pope that they might not be hindered by the Bishops in their Collections This custome had degenerated into a horrid abuse in that these Collectours treated with the Court of Rome that part of the purchase should be brought thither nay and it was even specified in the Bull how much the Collectour was to keep for himself and how much he was to pay out so publickly was that Corruption tolerated Of these gatherings a very small portion was employed in the charitable Work which served for a Pretext and the rest went into the Pocket of the Collectours and of those that had got them the Privilege Many time also they who obtained from Rome Patents to empower them to gather Charity farmed out their right to the off-scourings of the People who to make the most of their Farm by a thousand damnable Tricks frightned the People out of their wits and money They put themselves into strange Antick dresses and carried about with them bells and other tinckling instruments preached up counterfeit Indulgence and denounced a thousand Evils to those who refused them contributions and these were the Collectours that were then abolished This was all the Product of eight whole Months labour during which nothing was to be seen but Couriers without intermission posting from Rome to Trent and from Trent to Rome continual Treaties Negotiations and Conferences betwixt the Ambassadours of all the Princes in Europe and the Legates not to mention the infinite number of consultations and deliberations amongst the Prelates who were four times more in number than they were in the two first Convocations of the Council These great Engines having wrought so little People could not forbear to apply the Proverb Parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus The discontented and those professed Criticks that stand in awe of no Tribunal made their observations that there was no great need of meeting at Trent to blast the Memory of the Fathers of the Church by deciding a question concerning the Communion of young Children in such a manner as made the Judgment of the Ancients Heresie who would have Infants immediately after Baptism to receive the Communion and particularly they could not but condemn that Decree as absolutely unnecessary because now-a-days no body laboured to introduce the custome again But the less censorious could not forbear to mark a great want of Judgment in the second Canon which under Pain of an Anathema condemns those that will not believe that the Church had good reason to retrench the Cup. All men wondered that that refusing of the Cup being lookt upon as a matter of Humane Right since by a formal Decree of the Council it was left in suspence whether it should be restored or no should notwithstanding be decided under Anathema as a matter of Divine Right that the Church had reason in refusing it Matters are prepared for the following Session and the Presidents are reconciled This Session being over the Legates thought fit to prepare matters for the next but the Court of Rome judged it absolutely necessary to make the Cardinals of Mantua and Simoneta friends before they proceeded any farther For this reconciliation the Pope imployed the Mediation of Cardinal Gonzaga Uncle to the Cardinal of Mantua and of Alexander Simoneta Brother to the Cardinal of the same name both of them wrote so effectually to their Relations that the peace was made and the Sunday after the Session Simoneta dined with the Cardinal of Mantua They consulted together what means were to be used to satisfie the Pope as to the Point of Residence and the King of Spain as to the Demand he made that the present Council might be declared a Continuation of the former But to extricate them out of these Difficulties a Letter came very opportunely from the King of Spain which ordered the Marquess of Pescara not to insist any more for having the Continuation of the Council declared provided all words that might import that it was a new Council were avoided The same Letter gave orders to acquaint the Spanish Prelates that the King commended their Zeal in making so many instances for having Residence to be declared